The Argentine Cricket Association has announced the Argentina Under 19 squad to participate in the forthcoming ICC Americas Under 19 Championship, to take place in Toronto, Canada from 6 to 12 July, 2009. Argentina will join five other regional countries in the event - hosts Canada, defending champions Bermuda, USA, Cayman Islands and Bahamas.

Not only will all the countries be battling it out to be crowned Americas Under 19 champions, but also the top two teams at the end of the tournament will also advance to the Global Under 19 World Cup qualifying tournament later in the year. At the other end of the tournament, teams will be avoiding sixth place, as that would mean relegation to a regional Under 19 Division 2 later in the year.

The fact that there is now in fact an Under 19 Division 2 is a great boost for the region, as now countries such as Suriname, Chile and Belize are able to produce competitive teams and participate in regional age group tournaments. Argentina have not had many successes at regional level in Under 19 competition, the most notable perhaps being a victory over the USA back in 2001. Captain on that day was Esteban MacDermott, who is now captain of the senior national team, and who will be with the current Under 19 team in Canada in his role as National Development Manager.

"Argentina is always capable of causing a major upset," pointed out MacDermott. " The national team was one wicket away from defeating Canada in November, and the women’s national team just came back from their Americas championship having beaten both Bermuda and USA. Therefore, this group of boys should be inspired by those performances and enter the tournament looking to write their one history.

The Americas Under 19 tournament always represents a very big step ahead compared to the standard of cricket the boys play at home, and therefore the goals set go beyond the results that can be achieved in the matches they play. It means a development exercise for most, and things like spending quality time in the middle, batting and bowling against very good players becomes more important, and realistic, than winning every game."

This will be the second opportunity for new coach David Mauro to be involved at ICC Americas level, the Argentine having previously coached the Chilean senior national team in the regional Division 3 tournament in 2008. Manager Malcolm Gibson is no stranger to international cricket, as he is an accomplished international umpire, recently promoted to the Americas A Panel.

The full squad is:

• Alejo Tissera (capt)
• Agustin Husain
• Augusto Mustafa
• Ignacio Fermani
• Santiago Paez Nicoletti
• Gabriel Gonzalez Sutil
• Santiago Irigoyen Irixity
• Horacio Esperon
• Sebastian Fennell
• Juan Bautista Pinilla
• Paras Tulsiani
• Thomas Arrighi
• Pedro Arrighi
• Martin Rost

Manager is Malcolm Gibson, and coach will be David Mauro. National Development Manager Esteban MacDermott will also be with the squad.